Outspoken Chinese foreign minister purged by Xi Jinping

China’s government removed Foreign Minister Qin Gang from his post on Tuesday with no explanation after the minister’s mysterious disappearance from public view last month, state media reported.

Officials and analysts said the unusual firing is a sign of Chinese President Xi Jinping’s unchecked power and the fleeting nature of promotions among senior officials in Beijing’s communist system.

The official Xinhua News Agency said Mr. Qin, a former high-profile ambassador to Washington, was removed from the position after just seven months for unspecified reasons after an unusual meeting of the National People’s Congress Standing Committee, the Chinese Communist Party-controlled legislature.

Wang Yi, director of the party’s Central Foreign Affairs Commission who had been filling in for Mr. Qin during the mysterious absence, was appointed foreign minister. Mr. Wang held the post from 2013 until December. The NPC’s decision to remove Mr. Qin was based on a presidential order signed by Mr. Xi, Xinhua said.

The removal of Mr. Qin is a stunning reversal for the Chinese official, who until recently enjoyed a meteoric rise through the Beijing hierarchy and was reportedly personally close to Mr. Xi.

On Capitol Hill, House Foreign Affairs Committee Chairman Michael McCaul, Texas Republican, said the ouster of the foreign minister is a sign of the unchecked power of Mr. Xi, who is serving an unprecedented third five-year term as president and head of the ruling Communist Party.

“Qin Gang’s disappearance and eventual replacement demonstrates the full scope of Chairman Xi’s power and the ruthlessness of the [Chinese] bureaucracy — anyone can go, at any point, for any reason,” Mr. McCaul told The Washington Times.

He said it was troubling that the Biden administration was touting its good relations with Mr. Qin, who met with Secretary of State Antony Blinken for six hours last month on what was widely billed as a fence-mending trip.

“I warned the Biden administration against placing too much hope in engagement with [Chinese Communist Party] officials, for this shows that they can change the next day,” Mr. McCaul said. After Mr. Blinken’s trip, Treasury Secretary Janet Yellen and top White House climate adviser John Kerry visited Beijing.

Taken by surprise

A senior Biden administration official said Mr. Qin’s disappearance was a surprise because he appeared to be close to Mr. Xi. At 57, Mr. Qin was young for a senior party and government official. During two stints as Foreign Ministry spokesman, he earned a reputation as a leading Chinese “wolf warrior” diplomat unafraid to defend Beijing’s nationalist policies and reject Western criticism of China.

Mr. Qin’s meeting with Mr. Blinken on June 18 was supposed to be a first step in the administration’s diplomatic charm offensive to improve communications with China. A week after the meeting, Mr. Qin disappeared from public view and missed several diplomatic events, fueling speculation that he ran afoul of senior leaders because of a political error.

“He’s very much disliked by the Foreign Ministry,” the senior official said. “He rocketed up because of his personal relationship with Xi.”

A spokesman for the Chinese Embassy had no immediate comment.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry website started “updating” a page devoted to the foreign minister. The statement announcing the personnel shift still referred to Mr. Qin as a Cabinet-level state councilor, despite the loss of his top diplomatic post.

Former State Department official Miles Yu said Mr. Qin’s ouster highlights the byzantine nature of power struggles within the ruling Communist Party.

“No one is safe from the precarious whims of the supreme leader and the paranoid ethos of the deadly machinations in the inner core of the regime,” said Mr. Yu, now director of the China Center at the Hudson Institute.

The official news agency said Mr. Qin was fired along with Yi Gang, governor of the People’s Bank of China. It is not known whether the two dismissals are related.

Also during its session, the NPC reviewed a draft amendment to a criminal law. The amendment seeks to better implement CCP “principles and policies regarding the fight against corruption and the protection of private enterprises in accordance with the law,” the news agency said. The amendment related to bribery and corruption among business people.

The senior U.S. administration official said Mr. Qin’s wife once made mooncakes, a Chinese seasonal dessert, and the couple presented them to Mr. Xi. The action appeared to be the starting point for Mr. Qin’s rapid rise to prominence.

Mr. Qin, 57, was then promoted from a kind of press aide and personal assistant for Mr. Xi to ambassador to the U.S. and then to foreign minister.

From 2014 to 2018, Mr. Qin helped bolster Mr. Xi’s image by adopting new red uniforms for presidential guards and adding trumpets during ceremonies involving the president.

“[Qin] helped build and buttress Xi’s personal brand and leadership, and together with others designed all the accouterments of power,” the senior official said.

Paranoia

David Stilwell, an assistant secretary of state for East Asian and Pacific affairs during the Trump administration, said the Qin ouster is a sign that the level of paranoia in Beijing is reaching levels not seen since the 1966-1976 Cultural Revolution.

“Qin Gang was touted as a close associate of Xi Jinping when he got to D.C., but even close friends don’t seem to be above suspicion,” Mr. Stilwell said.

Mr. Stilwell said Lin Biao, a close aide to Mao Zedong, and Wang Lijun, a senior CCP official in Chongqing, were powerful officials who fell out of favor and were eliminated.

“All of Xi Jinping’s efforts to show his socialism with Chinese characteristics model as a better form of governance are falling apart,” he said.

The Chinese Foreign Ministry first explained that the minister was absent from public view because he had contracted COVID-19. That theory was dismissed after the normal period for recovery passed.

Later reports said his absence resulted from the discovery of an affair with a female reporter, Fu Xiaotian of Phoenix Television, a state-controlled network. Chinese censors took down Ms. Fu’s social media posts showing images with Mr. Qin.

Ms. Fu hosts Phoenix’s program called “Talk With World Leaders.” A YouTube post showed her interviewing Mr. Qin in Washington when he was Chinese ambassador.

The online newsletter SpyTalk said Mr. Qin may have fathered a child out of wedlock with the reporter.

Former State Department official John J. Tkacik said Mr. Qin, unlike most other diplomats, did not graduate from the China Foreign Affairs University. Instead, he was educated at the University of International Relations, which is linked to the Chinese intelligence services.

Mr. Qin was an outspoken critic of the United States and sharply condemned the U.S. downing of a suspected surveillance balloon earlier this year. He called the military response an overreaction to an errant weather balloon.

White House National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan said last week that the U.S. government had no information on Mr. Qin’s whereabouts.

Dennis Wilder, a former CIA analyst and China specialist, said Mr. Wang’s appointment as foreign minister was “the safest choice possible” for the Chinese communist system.

“Well-known around the world, he will project continuity in Chinese foreign policy,” Mr. Wilder said on Twitter. “Xi needs to reassure the globe that there is no deep problem in the Chinese leadership, that Qin Gang’s problems are personal, not national.”